Common Myths about Counselling

Counselling often gets a ‘bad name’, as people who have never attended usually get their point of reference about therapy from the movies, or TV shows. They often portray the New York Therapist, a couch and an uncomfortable talk about ‘your mother’ session as the therapist writes vigorous notes and makes ‘Judgy sounds’. This couldn’t be the opposite of what counselling is about, so here are some common myths about counselling, but also specifically how ‘Take A Step – Coaching & Counselling’ we do things differently:

1. COUNSELLING MYTH #1 – The Counsellor will Psycho-Analyse’ and judge me

People who have never attended counselling might think that there will be a diagnosing, judging occurring during sessions, with endless discussions leading to the clinician letting you know what is ‘wrong’ with you.

REALITY: Effective counselling is collaborative and about lending a ‘listening ear’ and practical strategies to deal with life’s stresses and problems. Strengths based counselling (which is the main approach used in TAS) is about finding out what is awesome and great about you, to build self-esteem and improved wellbeing.

The TAS approach: At TAS we specifically pride ourselves on being non-judgemental, welcoming with a warm approach. The number one goal is to ‘uncomplicate life’s struggles’ all our clinicians work on building good effective rapport, support with tangible strategies.

2. COUNSELLING MYTH #2 – Therapy is lengthy and expensive

Many believe that the therapeutic process lasts for months or years, is costly and ineffective.

REALITY: Participants of therapy attend for varying lengths of times, depending on their issues and their level of need. Medicare offer 10 sessions of rebates per year based on some research that indicates this is the average session length per client.

The TAS approach: At TAS we specifically pride ourselves on being efficient and effective, on average clients attend for 5-6 sessions (other studies show an average of 8-10), as support is based on need and empowerment. In other words, we provide a ‘teach how to fish’ mentality rather than keep looking for further problems. Medicare rebates, NDIS funding and other concessions can help bring the cost down (where eligible).

3. COUNSELLING MYTH #3 – The Therapist will just give me advice, and tell me what to do, how do they know what’s best for me.

REALITY: The best therapy is a mix of listening, giving perspective and learning new tools and techniques to cope with life. Therapy is almost never about giving advice, in fact it best results come from the client having their own breakthrough and realisations.

The TAS approach: At TAS we equip our clients with tools and techniques and aim to increase the clients’ ‘toolbox’ so that when dealing with the next challenge, they feel empowered to cope better and have more options& strategies to cope in a difficult situation. The main approach at TAS is strengths based counselling which is NOT about giving advice and that the ‘client has all the answers’ we just need to help them figure it out.